Sunday 05 May 2019 9:38 am | Updated: Wednesday 05 June 2019 9:14 am

May calls on Labour to ‘put differences aside’ to clinch cross-party Brexit deal

Theresa May has urged opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to help her “break the deadlock” on Brexit by putting their disagreements to one side.

Britain was supposed to leave the EU on 29 March, but the deadline has now been extended to 31 October after MPs voted down the Prime Minister’s withdrawal deal three times.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, May said this morning Labour should “listen to what voters said” in Thursday’s local elections in which the Tories suffered crippling losses across the country, with 1,334 councillors unseated.

Labour also failed to make expected gains, however, losing 82 seats, while pro-remain party the Liberal Democrats swept in to claim 703 seats.

The PM said the Brexit impasse was to blame for the losses, adding the result gave “fresh urgency” to her cross-party efforts to find a way forward.

She said she wants to find a “unified, cross-party position” with Labour, but admitted her own MPs “find this decision uncomfortable”.

“Frankly, this is not what I wanted, either,” she added. She called on Labour to “put their differences aside”.

Yesterday, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said a deal struck with Labour would be illegitimate. “As a result of the devastating election result, the PM has in effect become a caretaker,” he told the BBC.

“As such, she is not empowered to make any deal with the Labour Party which itself suffered a very similar result. Two discredited administrations making a discredited deal is not the answer to the electorate.”

May said today: “To MPs, I would say this: if we are able to negotiate a cross-party agreement, this deal will be a stepping stone to a brighter future, outside the EU, where the UK can determine the road ahead.”